Hitler believed he was doing God's work!!

[chatpilot]

I am currently reading Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler and even before reading this work I was of the opinion that Hitler believed he was doing the work of the Lord.Here is a direct qoute from Mein Kampf that reaffirms that belief in the words of the man himself.

"Hence today I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator:by defending myself against the Jew,I am fighting for the work of the Lord."

Need I say more?

[Meatball]

It's arguable. He's been quoted in nearly every shade of grey regarding religion, and keep in mind he was sorta insane.

Some might say that he truly believed he was doing God's work, or you might argue that he was not a believer at all, and used religion as a tool to gain support among common people.

Either way, I count it as a strike against religious faith.

[chatpilot]

Hitler was raised in the Catholic faith and I think that his insanity was due to two things in general.1.His faith and 2. His patriotism I am basing myself on my reading of Mein Kampf where early on he demonstrates his love of the Fatherland as he reffered to Germany.He accuses the Jews of trying to usurp his country,degermanize is the actual term he uses.And feels it's his duty to put an end to it and restore Germany to it's former glory.

I agree that his faith also serves as a strike against religion but at the same time most religious fanatics have done exactly as he has throughout history.Namely the inquisitions,witch hunts,and the crusades.Religion in it's most extreme form apparently tends to lead to insanity.

[Edwardo Piet]

Hmmm.
Maybe Hitler had a kind of anti-religious (specifically anti-jewish) faith.

Religion always needs faith but I don't think faith always needs religion. Although I guess because faith is a religious sort of attitude; then an anti-religous faith is sort of some weird form of anti-religious religion maybe? So maybe faith does always need religion...maybe religion is merely a group of people who have faith, whatever that faith be in? I dunno...depends how you look at it and how you define faith and religion I guess.

Dunno if thats helpful?

[starbucks]

I could pretty much say that if you're of European descent born after the Roman emperor Constantine converted to Christianity, you've all been influenced by Christianity. Yep, even your atheism is the result of it.

Even children born of atheist parents who happened to live in a Christian-dominated country is the RESULT OF CHRISTIANITY.

[chatpilot]

You are both right,but upon further reflection as I read through Mein Kampf I begin to see that Hitler at the time he wrote that book wasn't as insane as history makes him out to be.He makes some valid points about politics and religion throughout that book.Also,he truly believed in what he was doing.He refers to the Jews as a plague and blames them for the destabilization of the German economy at that time and the Germans losing thier sense of self.

Some of his arguments against politics especially,democracy and proletarianism actually make sense and still hold true today.His assesment of what a politician is and stands for is also true today.I have been writing down some of his more sensible quotes which I will share with this forum at a later date when I finish that book.

[dagda]

'Hitler was raised in the Catholic faith and I think that his insanity was due to two things in general.1.His faith and 2. His patriotism I am basing myself on my reading of Mein Kampf where early on he demonstrates his love of the Fatherland as he reffered to Germany.He accuses the Jews of trying to usurp his country,degermanize is the actual term he uses.And feels it's his duty to put an end to it and restore Germany to it's former glory.'

I don't think there is any doubt that Hitler was Catholic (if not a very good one) but I think his disturbed paranoia originated, mainly, from his biology (incence) and enviroment (poverty in Vienna, WW1). His faith and patriotism added to his mental problems but not all faithfull patriots are potential Hitlers.
Also, I don't think Hitler was insane. He was a very intteligent and, at times, rational politition who showed few of the clasic signs of maddness (or he would not have been elected). He was mearly Nazi, they are not the same thing.

[infidel666]

Religion in it's most extreme form apparently tends to lead to insanity.

On the contrary. It is insanity that has led to religion.

[FutureAndAHope]

I have been reading it as well it started out good but gets very boring as it moves along a bit. The political stuff makes me tired. As for truely believing he was doing the "work of the LORD", I doubt there is much serious to that statement because he uses god language through out but refering to gods, and goddesses.

E.g. The fact that great numbers of people went about blindfolded amid the manifest signs of dissolution only proves that the gods had decreed the destruction of Austria.

The Goddess of Fate clutched me in her hands and often threatened to smash me;

Infact he is more likely to have held an evolutionary point of view he believed in millions of years,

this planet will once again follow its orbit through ether, without any human life on its surface, as it did millions of years ago

He believed in natural selection:

Just as Nature concentrates its greatest attention, not to the maintenance of what already exists but on the selective breeding of offspring in order to carry on the species, so in human life also it is less a matter of artificially improving the existing generation--which, owing to human characteristics, is impossible in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred--and more a matter of securing from the very start a better road for future development.

Still have a lot of reading to do so have not made up my mind yet.

[starbucks]

People are so complex that it would be silly to say everything they do or say is due to ONE thing.

It's absurd when both sides try to use Hitler to jab each other.